Underachievement Unlocked

My life: a lot of potential and very little realization.

Very few posts on this blog, as well. But you might find some entertaining stuff if you go back a few years in the archives.

4 mar. 2003

7 instants

1. How could you react if faced with evidence that, on an exact subject, you are behaving against a principle you keep proclaiming?

Why don’t you begin with bringing the evidence, and we’ll talk about that. Because it can’t happen to me. Never did, never will. Axiom One, to be displayed over your bed so you don’t forget it: Garoo is always right. And no, Axiom Two isn’t Even when he’s wrong, he’s right, because it’s already been established he never is wrong.

So he always abides by his principles. And I don’t have many of those anyway. And my principles usually included exemption clauses for cases where there may be a problem. For instance, Never harm someone intentionally: that leaves plenty of room to harm lots of people. Only, not intentionally. Which I never do. So there.

It’s so easy not to disappoint yourself: just don’t expect too much!


2. How do you conceive the work of a trade unionist?

Uh. I feel like answering Not applicable. May I? Trade unions are not my business. Actually, since I’m unemployed, I end up having the outsider’s point of view, which is that trade unions usually locks factories and jams highways and hold people hostage and is generally a pain in the ass. But that’s not the way I understand the work of trade unions. Because I’m a left-wing kind of guy.


3. Do you deem necessary to listen to the antithesis of an argument you immediately adhered to?

Uh… I wouldn’t say necessary. But it can be nice. Let’s say I don’t think it’s compulsory, but I’m not hostile either. Because there’s no point in having convictions if you can’t stand and oppose contradiction. And as we say in France, only idiots don’t change their minds.


4. What is the cruelest feeling a parent can have towards their child?

Uh… indifference, I suppose?


5. What is the best way to express a feeling of rage?

What a joyful week… It’s hard to say, because I hardly ever express this kind of feeling. Almost never. I tend to keep it all for myself, until the day I’ve accumulated too much and it has to go out and I… still do nothing. That’s who I am.

Anyway, I guess that primal scream is an elegant solution. Or the idea of punching through a wall, but it doesn’t always work out so well. Especially here: the walls are thick and sturdy.


6. How would you define "society"?

It’s the aggregation of millions of individual egoisms which, thanks to some miracle I couldn’t explain, doesn’t immediately and totally lead to self-destruction.

Well, not immediately… On the planet’s scale, a few millenniums aren’t that much.


7. Do you reread old posts you have written?

Scarcely. Or even never, considering this tendency I have to completely forget what I may have posted two days earlier. I’m not one of those bloggers who write for future reference, in order to read themselves again later and reminisce all their past thoughts. I write for readers, not for myself. And since my readers don’t deserve me spending my time rereading old posts and fixing mistakes and reworking sentences, I’m not about to bother.

In fact, it’s more about respect for the very essence of blogging. Once something is posted, it mustn’t be edited anymore. Fixing typos and adding post-scriptums is okay, but it wouldn’t make sense if I spent my time changing some details and altering sentences in posts from last month. Yet if I read them again I’d be frustrated by all the flaws I can’t correct anymore. When you have a propensity to perfectionism like I do, you need a lot of discipline not to become obsessive-compulsive about rereading your works.

 

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